I’m relieved to see some signs of life after chopping this azalea down a couple of weeks ago. I was worried I waited too long after the spring bloom and it wouldn’t react well in the heat of the summer.
This smells suspiciously like a lesson in patience. Hmmmm.
Lucked my way into a work-related golf outing last week during the previously-mentioned heat wave. It was foolishly hot outside, which is what I’m blaming my back 9 struggles on.
I couldn’t make a putt. It was awful.
And, as always, I hit enough good shots to go again. Hopefully soon, but not so soon that it’s still summer-hot out.
The heat’s been oppressive over the last week. This weird sky was the front that came in to break the weather into something more habitable.
I did some digging at the local nursery and found an azalea that had a decent single-stem structure. I forgot to take a photo before I hacked it down, but trust me when I say it was a good-looking little azalea with plenty of branches and leaves.
I may have waited too long post-bloom to work on it, but we’ll see. I got to use bonsai cut paste for the first time. It’s a lot like glue, and I got to use a good amount because I was a little loosey-goosey with the pruning saw. I’m sure it will be fine.
I moved the little maple sprout out of this pot and replaced it with a, what the nursery calls, “pre-bonsai”. It’s a plant that’s been through the first couple of bonsai prunings and is set up for success.
I’ve got both of these plants in a moderately shady spot on the back porch. We’ve had plenty of rain and hot sun, so I’m hoping they get through to the fall. We’ll see.
We normally get a pitcher when we have sandwiches at Chiocca’s, but the keg had blown and we weren’t interested in waiting for the changeover. A couple of cans of PBR did the trick.
Bottle shop here got a bunch of cases of these deGarde Brewing Kriek BuVeaux bottles. This was spontaneously fermented, with cherries, and aged in oak barrels for two years. It’s not my normal style preference, but they never show up around here so I splurged.
This cherry tomato plant has been super-productive.
I was down in Newport News this past weekend to play in the Men’s 18+ USTA Mid-Atlantic Regionals. I am but a humble 3.0-rated player, and this is the tournament to qualify for the Sectionals weekend next month. I went 1-2 in my matches, but the team went 3-1, so we’re through to the next round. It’s tricky to coordinate the schedules of a bunch of grownups in the middle of vacation season, but we were able to get enough guys together to get it done.
It was so damn hot. I may never be hydrated again.
Like the rest of the east coast, we suffered through the smoke from last week’s Canadian wildfires.
They’re still going, but the wind isn’t dragging it down to us. It was an eerie couple of days.
The Pink Jimmy is a vodka/cranberry/lime, and a refreshing cocktail to record a podcast by.